I decided to ink up another Unity stamp and thought this stand of trees would be perfect for the different greens in the challenge. I thought the little blue "hello" went well with the little blue birdies and the line frame was inspired by PTI's Make It Monday technique. (I know the only PTI element is the hello but I might just post it over there anyway...). Unity's current challenge is to incorporate birds into your project and even though my birds are tiny they're Unity and they're there so I will add this to their gallery too! :)
Off to watch the wedding! Are you watching?

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I am cursed when it comes to the Just Add Ink challenge. I seem to miss it every time! This week's challenge was Just Add Friendship. I combined it with this week's sketch at The Sweet Stop. At least I'm in time for that one! :)

I'm continuing to explore my new Unity stamps. This girl stamp is from their April 2009 Kit of the Month. I got a great price on a secondhand set (thanks, Diane!). There's so many images with each set it's going to take me a while to get through them all but I could think of a lot worse ways to spend my time! :)

I did some paper piecing with the challenge colours and added HA's envelope pattern for some texture on the bird's chest. It's based roughly on one of this month's sketches at Hero Arts and is also masculine (in my opinion!) so I'm going to enter it over at Hero Arts as well.

Now back to the Craft Cave where I hope to complete a few more projects this afternoon. Have a lovely one!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Just a quickie post today. Lawnscaping Challenge #8 is Calling All Critters! Lawn Fawn has lots of cute critters but at the moment I only have the Critters in the 'Burbs set. I needed a graduation card for a friend's son so I reached for that cutie Lawn Fawn doggie and made a quick and simple card. Hope you are all well! Later, gators!

Top 5 Albums1. A Grand Don't Come For Free - The Streets Tells the story of a relationship from beginning to end2. Hangin' Tough - New Kids on the Block Brings back a lot of happy memories :)3. Life Thru a Lens - Robbie Williams The album that gave us "Angels". 'Nuff said. 4. Rise - Gabrielle Love her voice 5. Rites of Passage - Indigo Girls Reminds me of an old friend and boy can these girls harmonise.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Thankfully the prediction of wind and rain for the weekend turned out to be completely wrong. We had 3 gorgeous days. Saturday was spent cleaning the house, mowing the yard and cleaning patio furniture in preparation for a BBQ that night. Sunday Luis and his friend Ruben finished patching and painting the roof (as seen in the photo below). It's now a blazing white - need sunglasses to look at it! LOL! Emily asked if there was a particular reason we use white paint. Traditionally a lime wash was used on the roofs which helped to cleanse the water. Nowadays a non-toxic paint is used. I guess now you could paint the roof any colour but the white is traditional and also helps to keep the houses cool.

The dogs got long walks and swims every day which they were thrilled with. I was thrilled too as we had some returning visitors down at the dock. There's a gorgeous parrot fish that comes around now and then and I hadn't seen him for a while. You can't quite tell from this picture but he's at least 2 feet long.

Our octopus has also come back! He was living under our dock for a while but I didn't see him at all last year. Yesterday he came out of his hole for a wander around and nearly got run over by Atticus when he charged along the shallows to get his toy. The poor octopus inked everywhere and took off back to his hole! You can see a bit of him sticking out of the hole in the picture below - the reddish-brown splotchy bits. I'll try and get some pictures next time he's out and about.

I actually managed to get some cards done yesterday too. My friend's birthday is coming up so I made her a little set of cards with one of my favourite Hero Arts sets. They'll be winging their way to the Cayman Islands hopefully in time for her birthday in May.

One last shot. Lynn was talking about her sleepy boys in this post and I had 2 sleepy boys last night too! I found Jem in our bed when I went to change the sheets. I dragged all the bedding off the bed and onto the trunk at the foot of the bed and he never budged! When kids crash they really crash!

Friday, April 22, 2011

.It was a beautiful Good Friday here! There wasn't much wind in the morning but by early afternoon there was a good strong breeze and lots of kites to be seen. I tried taking some pictures and was just looking for my camera to upload them but I think I left it at my mom's so the pics will have to wait.

We actually didn't fly any kites ourselves but we had a busy day. We took the hounds for a long walk this morning along a new route so they had a ball - noses working overtime! Back at home we had a big pancake breakfast with my mom (we don't eat them often so they're a special treat when we do). Then it was off to work on the roof. It needs cleaning, patching and painting and we decided that the long weekend was the best time to tackle it. Once done on the roof we took the hounds for a swim off the dock - their favourite activity ever! After the swim was bath time for the hounds, shower time for us and then a few minutes of chillin' on the sofa... which became a 4 hour nap which we woke up from at 9:30pm!! Whoops!More Bermuda facts for you today: Roofs in Bermuda are painted white and need to be cleaned and painted regularly as they affect our water. Bermuda houses have water tanks underneath them. When it rains the water runs along our white roofs into gutters that funnel it down into the tank. Because this is our primary source of water we have always been conscious of water conservation - no leaving the tap running when you brush your teeth, only run full loads of laundry, no dilly dallying in the shower and baths are a special occasion luxury.

So today Luis power washed the roof and since we had the washer (on loan from a neighbour) we did the windows, porches and cars too. Tomorrow we will patch the cracks and on Sunday we will paint. Busy busy!

So no crafty time for me today but I made this card the other day with another of my new Unity stamps. I thought it went well with the sentiment from Hero Arts and the clients at the veterinary hospital I work at love animal cards so I can never have enough. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The challenges for The Sweet Stop and Just Us Girls each have an extra element this week. The Sweet Stop is a sketch with a spin challenge (Winged Things) and JUGS is a colour challenge with a twist (must be a birthday card).

For this card I busted out my brand new Unity stamps! (Yes, Emily, I finally caved thanks to you!) The butterfly and the leopard print background are from the March Kit of the Month. Love that leopard print! I have a feeling it will be making many more appearances on my cards. Can't wait to dig in to the rest of the Unity stamps. I also won 5 Hero Arts stamps from Moxie Fab and they arrived this week too. Whoo hoo! It's felt like my birthday every time I've gone to the post office! :)

I am so looking forward to the long weekend starting tomorrow! In Bermuda, Good Friday is a public holiday and it's traditional to eat codfish cakes and hot cross buns and to fly kites. The kite-flying apparently stemmed from a Sunday School teacher trying to explain Christ's ascension to Heaven to his class - he finally launched a kite with the likeness of Christ on it to illustrate the point. Not only do we fly kites but we make our own traditional Bermuda kites out of wood, string and tissue paper. The photo below shows the traditional hexagonal design but there are always plenty of other shapes and designs to be found. It's quite a sight to see on Good Friday when there hundreds of kites in the air all over the island.

(And no, I did not get around to making a kite this year. Shame on me!)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Lovely spring colours which made me think of flowers. I found these blue and pink flowers in a container on a high shelf that I had forgotten about - being 5 feet tall the things above my head get forgotten often!! The brads are glittery ones from Doodlebug and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Just finished a ball of game with the hounds and they are crashed out cooling off on the tile floor. Jem must be dreaming that he's on a big hunt because he's letting out these little ruffs and is paddling away with his paws. Too darn cute!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

It always amuses me how seriously Atticus and Jem take playing ball. They have a real routine when it comes to fetching and returning it.

Jem is ready to play some ball so he stalks it and shows me where it is.

I throw it and usually Atticus gets to it first. He carries it around for a bit, tormenting Jem, and then finally drops it. Jem then gets the ball and he trots up the slope of the driveway with Atti close behind.

Then he gently puts the ball down...

..and holds it in place with his nose for a few moments.

Then he lets it go to roll down the hill to me.

"Uh, dude. It didn't roll."

"Doh! Okay, I'll try again."

Repeat the process a million times until Atticus gets tired and instead of dropping the ball for Jem he takes it up on the hillside, lays down and chews on the ball.

Monday, April 18, 2011

I hope all of you in the US are okay after those wild tornadoes this weekend. There was some really scary footage on the news tonight. It had been forcast that we were going to have crummy weather this weekend but it turned out to be gorgeous here. Today was also beautiful but we had an earthquake! We have minor ones very occasionally (we're close to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge). I felt one once when I was a kid and I only felt it because I was sleeping on the floor (there's a pretty crazy story behind why but I'll save that for another day). I didn't feel today's quake but all the dogs (and the geese!) in the neigbourhood started making a racket around 12:30pm. An hour later my mom called to ask if I'd felt the earthquake! She'd felt it in her office in town but hadn't realised what it was until later. Weird... Last week there was a group here from the US who spent the day in town handing out flyers to everyone about how the world is supposed to end on May 21st. With all the wild weather stuff that's been going on lately it's not seeming all that crazy right now...

I used a cute Woodware teddy stamp which I paper pieced. The little tag is a Woodware punch that I got from England - I love their punches! When will they have their punches in the Woodware USA shop I wonder?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Yesterday was a glorious day - brilliant sunshine and a cool breeze. I went to have lunch with 2 friends who I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen in almost 2 years. We used to lunch regularly when we worked together but then I switched jobs and we all got busy. It blows my mind that I can live in a place so small and still not run into people! (Meanwhile almost every time I go to Manhatten I run into someone I know on the street. Go figure...) We ended up eating outside because it was so nice and we nattered away for 2 1/2 hours. The right side of me is now scarlet! Normally I'm pretty good about using suncreen but I hadn't expected to be eating outside. Doh! I look pretty silly...

Anyway the biggest surprise of the day was that one of the girls turned up with a baby bump!! She and her husband celebrated their completion of an Iron Man Triathalon by conceiving. (Not on purpose but maybe her body figured this would be the only way to get her to take a break! LOL!) Anyway I'm thrilled for them and they are going to be fantastic parents. It inspired me to make a few more baby cards (which I need for my stash anyway as last week a lady bought 19 cards from me including all my baby ones). They're not for any particular challenge but I thought I'd share them anyway. Simple and to the point. The paper is SEI and ATD and the stamps are Rusty Pickle (that name makes me giggle) and Hero Arts.

I think I've used a record number of parentheses today so before I add any more I will depart! Later, gators!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The lovely Brandi of Yankee Belle Stamper has bestowed upon me the Cherry on Top Award! Whoop whoop! Brandi's cards are always bright, colourful and as cheerful as Brandi herself. Make sure you check her out.

In accepting the award I have to complete a few tasks:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

Obrigada, Brandi!

2. Post this award on your blog

You're looking at it, baby!

3. List 3 things that you love about yourself

I love that my fingers are double jointed, my toes are webbed and I can wiggle my ears.

4. Post a picture that you love

This picture is from our wedding last year. It perfectly captures the three most important people in my life - Luis, my mom and my brother, Phil. I HATE having my picture taken so I was not enjoying this little photo session. However, I can always count on Phil to be a goof - to make me laugh and get me to chill out a bit. :) He is the comedy relief of the family and one of the best guys in the world (not that I'm biased or anything...)

5. Tag 5 people to receive this award

There are way more than 5 people who I would love to give this award to but I've managed to whittle down my list. Here are the 5 fabulous ladies I'm passing the Cherry on to in no particular order (except in alphabetical order - 'cause I'm AR like that!).

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

This is the second time in a week I've come across a challenge and had an instant flash of inspiration! Whoop whoop! Normally I agonise for ages over what to do but this has been a nice change. Hopefully I'll be due for one more inspiration flash (as things come in threes right?)

The challenge is at Wee Memories - Challenge #51 Tangled Up. We are to use twine in our project. Now I don't have any of that awesome Twinery baker's twine (not yet, anyway!) but I have plenty of regular brown twine. Maybe it was the word "tangled" but I immediately thought of a bird's nest and put together this little card:

I love that little PTI birdie! He comes in handy for so many things and I'm sure will make many more appearances here in the future.

Must go check on hubby. Poor guy had 2 teeth pulled today and is completely miserable at the moment. He's snuggled up on the sofa under a duvet giving me pathetic puppy dog eyes. Or that could be one of the actual dogs as they're both piled on top of him... Hmmm...